UK universities are making slow progress in their bid to close the gender pay gap, latest figures show, with male employees’ advantage having widened even further at one in five institutions.
Last year, university leaders came under fire after the first official gender pay gap data showed that women in UK universities were paid a mean hourly wage that was, on average, 15.9 per cent lower than their male colleagues.
One year on, analysis by Times Higher Education shows that figure has changed little, with it now standing at 15.1 per cent. The median average gap, which tends to reduce the effect of outliers, was 14.8 per cent for 2018, widening from 14 per cent the previous year.
Of the 228 higher education institutions to have published data for the 2018 year, 46 were shown to have widened their gap since the first reporting exercise.
At Bournemouth Arts University, the mean pay gap grew by 4.7 percentage points in 2018, from 10.3 per cent to 15 per cent. Bishop Grosseteste University’s gap rose by 4.1 percentage points, and both the Royal Agricultural University and the University of Surrey saw their gender pay gaps widen by 2.9 per cent.
Universities reporting largest growth in gender pay gap
| Institution | Mean average hourly rate (% lower than men), 2018 | Mean average hourly rate (% lower than men), 2017 | Change (% point) |
| Arts University Bournemouth | 15 | 10.3 | 4.7 |
| Bishop Grosseteste University | 10.4 | 6.3 | 4.1 |
| Royal Agricultural University | 17.1 | 14.2 | 2.9 |
| University of Surrey | 17 | 14.1 | 2.9 |
| Loughborough University | 27.1 | 24.3 | 2.8 |
While every institution still reported a gender pay gap in favour of men, 192 universities managed to reduce their mean average hourly pay gap by 0.1 per cent or more.
Of those who made the most progress, Falmouth University tops the table with a mean average gap of 14.3 per cent – 8.2 percentage points smaller than the previous year.
Universities reporting largest reduction in gender pay gap
| Institution | Mean average hourly rate (% lower than men), 2018 | Mean average hourly rate (% lower than men), 2017 | Change (% point) |
| Falmouth University | 14.3 | 22.5 | -8.2 |
| Queen Mary University of London | 13.7 | 21.7 | -8.0 |
| York St John University | 11.5 | 18.4 | -6.9 |
| Harper Adams University | 22.6 | 27.7 | -5.1 |
| University of Bolton | 14.1 | 17.9 | -3.8 |
The University of Worcester remains the institution with the smallest mean pay gap, with the male advantage shrinking from 3.2 per cent to 2.1 per cent this year.
At the other end of the scale, London Business School still has the largest gap, of 44.8 per cent – although this was a slight improvement on last year’s figure of 45 per cent. Loughborough and Lancaster universities, the University of Warwick and the Royal Veterinary College continue to pay their male staff at least 25 per cent more, on average.
Warwick and Loughborough attributed their figures to the fact that they do not outsource recruitment for lower-paid jobs such as cleaning services.
Helen Carr, head of equality at University and College Union, cautioned that the reported figures only told part of the story.
“Simply reporting on the gap is not enough. The terribly slow pace of change will only be sped up when universities publish action plans that set out how and when they will reduce the gap,” she said.
“For years we have heard enlightened rhetoric in higher education about the issue of unfair pay for women, what we really need are clear commitments on how institutions will reduce the gap and when.”
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